HISTORY THROUGH POSTCARDS: THE COTTON GIN

"The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth in the production of cotton in the United States, concentrated mostly in the South. Cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850. As a result, the region became even more dependent on plantations and slavery, with plantation agriculture becoming the largest sector of its economy. While it took a single slave about ten hours to separate a single pound of fiber from the seeds, a team of two or three slaves using a cotton gin could produce around fifty pounds of cotton in just one day. The number of slaves rose in concert with the increase in cotton production, increasing from around 700,000 in 1790 to around 3.2 million in 1850. By 1860, black slave labor from the American South was providing two-thirds of the world’s supply of cotton, and up to 80% of the crucial British market. The cotton gin thus “transformed cotton as a crop and the American South into the globe's first agricultural powerhouse."

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CC DUNCAN MEMORIES: Farmer's Gin Company of Dell

"U. W. Moore, Leslie Moore, Earl Magers, Russell Greenway, Dewey Sheppard built the Farmers Gin Co. of Dell, Inc. Mr. Earl Magers managed the gin until his death in January 1957. During the time Mr. Magers managed the Cotton Gin, I worked on the farm during the spring months. I weighed cotton at the Farmers Gin Co. of Dell, Inc, during the winter and fall months. 

You might say I got an education on how far people would go to cheat. On certain customers trailers, I had to check and see if they had some people in the trailer, too. Also, if there was a water keg or barrel on the trailer, I checked to see if it had water in it. I repeated the above when they weighed back across with the empty trailer. The cottonseed rebate was figured on the first weight, less the weight of the cotton bale. To have a higher rebate, the people would not weigh back across, and they'd dump the water.

After Russell Greenway and Mr. Earl Magers died, it left Mr. U. W. Moore and Leslie Moore. The Board of Directors appointed me as manager. There were a few other customers, but really not very many. The gin customers were made up of the stockholders. Most of the cotton came to the cotton gin in trailers. I tried to gin the trailers in rotation as they were weighed across the scales. You always had some that had to have the trailer now. I would stay with the schedule. It was tough on the small person, because they did not have enough trailers for their cotton. The Moore brothers told me all they cared about was getting their trailers empty. So I tried to do that. Everything went along well, except I had ginners who liked to drink on the job. I got John Ray trained as a ginner and had much better luck. Of course you had the break downs in machinery. I spent many nights, as well as days, going to Memphis, Tennessee for parts. I did not get paid that much, but the job was ideal for me. I had the farm, but Arnold (Gilliam) took care of that. I could spend my time on the golf course, or with the family during the summer months. But come fall, that gin ran 24 hours a day."

WRITTEN 9 OCTOBER 2002